The secret benefit of activated charcoal you never knew

14th September 2018

That’s right – as well as giving you whiter teeth and helping exfoliate your skin – activated charcoal has been used to counteract the effects of some poisoning incidents – note, please don’t try this at home folks!

This unusual benefit of activated charcoal was revealed when, in 1813, French chemist Michel Bertrand swallowed a lethal dose of arsenic and survived. His secret? The arsenic was mixed with activated charcoal.

Later, in 1831, pharmacist Pierre-Fleurus Touéry ingested strychnine before a bemused and horrified audience at the French Academy of Medicine. The dose he swallowed was ten times higher than the amount required to kill your average Agatha Christie victim, yet by mixing it with 15g of activated charcoal, Touéry lived to tell the tale.

And so the world discovered just one of the many benefits of activated charcoal, and the medical community set out to research what else it could help with.

For example, if you suffer with trapped wind or flatulence after eating, activated charcoal could provide the answer. Lifeplan WindAway provides coconut derived activated charcoal for a fast acting way to soothe the symptoms of wind.